[$$$] Springtime contest

Hello all,

Some weeks ago the thought struck me that this forum needed a little more action in the contest section. It's been way too long since we had the last awesome contest with a cool price to win, and I feel like everyone's lost that satisfying feeling of completing a project or game. So, I started organising a new contest. Inspired by the DS/Wii/GBA development contests, organised every year at drunkencoders (drunkencoders.com/compo/), I imagined that we could accomplish something similar. After assembling a team of 5 judges, (Hellghast, HeelX, Mercuryus, Inestical and me (with special thanks to ISG)), we created the contest plan in full detail. And now we're ready to make it public.


So, what's to win?
Most important motivator, the price. And we have a price to offer you'll definately like: there's a starting total pricemoney of 150 dollar to divide among 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, respectively 50%, 30% and 20% from the pricemoney. But that's not all yet! You all have the possibility to donate any amount to the pricemoney, and help pushing it to an awesome height. Although this is not required, for fun's sake we strongly encourage you to contribute with us!
Sounds awesome? Well, there's even more. When we have reached a certain popularity, JCL agreed to contribute an extra price for the first place! What price this is you'll know when we reached enough participants .


Great! So what do we need to do?
We want you to create a casual game. You will not be judged on artwork, but on original content, the creative concept, gameplay and playability (so spend time on controls and interactions ;)). You'll get extra points when you compensate your horrible programmer art with good humour.
As the title suggests, the theme is springtime. Yes, we just entered the winter period, but we're already working towards spring. Anything related with spring in the widest sense will do. Honeybee hopper, Termite Terminator, Flower Defense... just be creative!


How to submit, and what's the deadline?
This contest will end at 28th of February, 23:59. As long as it isn't 29th of February, 00:00 anywhere in the world, your submissions are still valid. That leaves you around 2,5 months to create a game. Start on time, and feel free to submit any amount of games you want. Each submission will be judged and awarded individually. If you want to update a previous submission, that's no problem either. You can update until the deadline has passed.
Your submissions are bound to some rules, which can be read here . Most important is that they should be under 50 MB.
Send all your submissions to: contests@joozey.nl


You can read everything in detail on the contest page: 3dgscontests.joozey.nl

All come join, and have fun .

Regards,
Joozey

it's not clearly stated, i just wanted to be sure: you have to use a7? is a6 fine? does it have to be acknex at all? any limits on 3rd party software, hardware (as it's supposed to be a casual game) and so forth?

"there's a starting total pricemoney of 150 dollar to divide among 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, respectively 20%, 30% and 50% from the pricemoney."
uh... so if I'm third, I get more money than 1st and 2nd? :P

Changed

I'm in. Can't think of what I'll make though...

I'm assuming we can enter as a team?

Yes, you can enter as a team. Just send your submission in under one name, with the required information. This member will receive the won prices.

By the way do they have to be compiled or open source?

If you feel generous towards the community, they may be open source for sure .

OK thanks...We'll see.

Can I enter the same thing I enter into the AUM contest?

You can enter any game you want, as long as it matches the theme and runs on 3D Gamestudio. Just remember how your entry will be judged .

A note to everyone:
I'd like to know who's all planning to join the contest. If you would like to participate, drop a note here .
Until now I count four potential participants. There's a total of 165 dollar to be won, who else dares to join?

I'm in (even I'm part of the jury [i'm not allowed to vote for my own project *sight* ])

Me, DoofGuy and Darkjava are most likely in as a team (maybe some more people as well)

I hope to, but im not sure if i can yet. can it be a demo to a commercial game we are planning on creating?

I'd say that can be, as long as it meets all the rules.

The pricemoney has risen to a grand $180. A few more and we'll cross the $200! Step up with us and join! Any penny is appreciated. If you'd like, your company, organisation and/or team will be mentioned on the supporters page. Just send me a PM about it.

We still need a few more participants in order to get Conitec's support (including that extra price!!), so don't wait any longer and start your development . For future contests like this, I too expect some more participants. It would be great if we could arrange this an event every year, or perhaps even every 6 months.

Regards,
Joozey

I'll see if I can enter with a game, hopefully I get enough free weekends

i want to join contest too, working on a casual game now, but its not really spring theme, how much into spring it must be? will it be okay if i just add some bg with flowers blooming or something like this?
and i use .tga for images, archived game about 30 mb, unpacked its like 130mb
so i wonder if <50mb rule is for packed or unpacked size?
i think unpacked will be unfair because not everyone can use .wrs >.<

and how about contest for casual games without themes? i think there will be more people this way.

The 50MB counts for the packed game.

Any relation to spring is granted in the widest sense. Preferably a little more than only a background with flowers, but it would be taken as a valid submission. Just remember that the closer you are to the theme, the more points you'll be awarded.

okay, im in then =)

I'm very happy to read about this Contest(little bit late ) And I hope I can implement my idea, yet!
But I'm not sure if I'm able to participate in the contest....

Just don't make it too big, and you should still be able to finish a game .

just a guess, but maybe people aren't spending because they can't read that page and thus don't trust it... can't you switch that to english?

it IS in English?

It'a like in the other contests - the less join the better the chance to win a big price. (hehehe).
My game meanwhile is growing...

I don't understand what's not to read there either. Only the domain is Dutch, but it has been my domain for, like, forever . Buying a .com domain costs me more money.

clicking on that chipin-button leads me to a page titled "factuurinformatie". either my english sucks or this is not english. i hope it is the latter one.

Hmm, it is the latter one . It's Dutch, I thought Paypal switches to ones own language, but apparently not. I'm searching how to fix it, thanks for pointing it out.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no option to change the default language. The most recent news I found here:
- http://unleashedmind.chipin.com/wysiwyg-api

So, as stated, trying a second time, and/or logged in Paypal may help.

There are more downsides to ChipIn behind the screens, such as that transfer fees are not included in the totals (as written on the page), but I will add a maximum of 15 dollars to compensate them. We're now little over 10 dollar on transfer fees.

INITIATE GAMES IS PARTICIPATING...

our casual game is going to be alled City of White...


its going to be a pretty interesting short project.

...coming soon..

Looking very nice both .
Keep them comeing!

One more week to send your submission. I have received none officially yet. If the count of submitted entries is 5 or lower, I'll concider stretching the contest with another month.

???

That's not fair!
Rules are rules - and to be in time is one of the most important things in the game dev business.
If a project was designed too big if fails - that's it (imho).

all this said because i know my little spring game is already finished and currently in test stage

Objection noted.

I vote for another month or so, I've only seen this contest today, lol.

How many people are taking part so far?

Cheers

Yeah! Thats cool! (*cynicism*)
I planed and sized a project to be finished in time (2.5 months) as the RULES told us.
Now - to the end of the contest - the less seems to be interested anymore or just have (again) too unrealistic projects/ideas the contest should be extended?

What's up with you?

Rules are rules!
If you want to be taken seriously you have to act like.
George with his contest also don't extend the contests just as he likes it - and everyone respects this...

A lot of grouchy people on these forums today. It's HIS contest, it's THEIR (contest holders) prize money, that means it's THEIR rules. That's why you design a game to win, if it's meant to be then it's meant to be. Gives you a chance to work on graphics, make gameplay tweaks, etc.

I support the idea and backing of this contest 100%. Great to see user-held contests to try to initiate user game creations!

Post Edited (deleted by ISG).

[edit mercuryus]
Seems there is only one opinion - the moderator's?

I ask all to not continue the discussion in this thread further. If you find nessecary to say something, PM it to me. Mercuryus is in his full right to object, and I do take him seriously, there's no need to post against.

Any post continuing about this will be asked for removal.


Now, I should not have mentioned publicly what I concider. But what has been said, cannot be unsaid. The deadline still stands on saturday 28th of February. Please send your project(s) before the first of May March to contests@joozey.nl .




Good luck everyone .

Regards,
Joozey

That's fine with me, don't worry. It was announced months ago, so I guess it only makes sense, but hey Joozey sort of suggested it, so please don't blame me.

february? may?

28th of february, but, as usual, some days for slow-man :)))

some days? lol
There are TWO (2) month between end of february and first of may!
Maybe he meant march?

(/sarcasm) Cool so we're getting an extra month after all.
(just kidding)

Err, changed to March :P

12 hours remaining before the contest is over.

Xarthor, on the work, i sometimes missed when it's friday, so nothing strange

anyway, its interesting to look at the demos

The contest has finished on Saturday 28th of Februari, 23:59, Honolulu timezone. Within two weeks the submissions and winners shall be represented here. Keep an eye on the thread .

Regards,
Joozey

err...saw this and thought you had actually moved it to march...but oh well. too late now.

Any news on possible winners?

Friday I hope to have all the results and announce the winners.

It's going to take at least until Monday, as I forgot I do not currently have an internet connection other than this crappy dial-up.

Apologies for the delay.

Regards,
Joozey

I know it took already two weeks after the contest ended, but it will again take some little longer.

Thanks for your patience,
Joozey

Finally I have assembled the results!

A total of 180 dollar was donated. That means the first place earns 90 dollar, second place 54 dollar, third place 36 dollar. (transfer fees will not be compensated)

Four participants have submitted to the contest:

- King Frog by Mercuryus
- Hedgehogs by LunaticX, Djz
- Blossom Catcher by Dennis (a.k.a. Hellghast)
- Wacky Attack! by Guardian

Shots:
King Frog
Hedgehogs
Blossom Catcher
Wacky Attack!

After all judges wisely choosed their preference through a weighted point division, a tied second place between King Frog and Blossom Catcher resulted in a vote within the jury. And we have come to a decision.


Now, the results...

Wacky Attack! received a honorable fourth place with 2.100 points.
On the third place ended Blossom Catcher with 2.500 points.
Second place is occupied by King Frog as well with 2.500 points.
And on first place ends Hedgehogs with 2.675 points.


My congratulations to all the winners, and thanks for everyone supporting and participating!
Spend your price well in these instable times .

Regards,
Joozey

Congrats to all winners and thank's to the jury voting me on the second place with KingFrog.

Everyone missed to play the frog can download the free game from my web page... (have fun)
www.gameus.de

Congratulations to Mercuryus, LunaticX, Djz and Helghast.

EDIT: @mercuryus: How did you make the online highscore??

It's a simple php script called per http.

Can you share it and tell us how to use it, please?

thus it's pretty exploitable?



it's like there is a php script, you just send http request using a plugin(i guess it was already released to community.)

like

www.site.com/script.php?score=300&name=quad

php script does the rest?

for getting scores part, he uses a php script wich produces this:

and gets this text data and parses it in lite-c

so you have fun cheating the simple highscore, hu?

Oh my... So that was the game's highscore?!
Shame on you :P

i was just trying to see if it works >.<

@mercuryus: Calm down. He was just trying the trick!

Did anyone of the other winners already got his price?
Joozey seems to be very busy theese days?

Yes, I'm very busy, and no, nobody got his price yet.
I want to hand the price to all at once for administration reasons, but I'm still missing a reply from lunaticX.

SORRY dont mean to belittle your english...i just thought that was funny =) congrats to all the winners

i cant get prize money, because Joozey can send them only to paypal and paypal doesnt work with russia =( dunno what to do.

Yeah, it's annoying, but in that case he should do a wire transfer instead so the money ends up on your bank account directly. He will need your bank account info, name address and so on. Ah, and he will need to get the money from his paypal account into his own bank account first.

Anyways, congratz, hope this will be solved.

I thought I stated in the rules that only paypal would be used, but I can't find it back in my own rules . So I guess I'm bound to accept a wired transfer. I will not compensate the fees, however. They'll be between 10-15 euros in total.

I'm quite sure that's not true, as it's usually free for internet banking. I've paid 200 bucks to someone in Russia and had to pay zero transfer fees.

No, the money on the paypal will first be withdrawn to my account, this costs about 10-15 euro. If I'd pay right away, then what do I do with the money on the paypal account? It's not like I buy a whole lot of stuff online. Nor do I need to make such a sacrifice. The price is collected online, and shall be divided from here.

Bank transfers do not cost any money because you pay for the transactions at the end of the year.

Not if you're a student. I never pay anything for bank transfers and use it all the time, I buy a lot of stuff through the internet.

Anyways, if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work.

What happens if you would transfer to another bank account, for example mine or your parents? (i.e. Paying with Paypal ) Wouldn't you have to pay Paypal a fee as well?

I didn't know withdrawing money from Paypal costs money though (I thought they only have a minimum withdrawal limit), at least I had expected that it wouldn't be that much. To me it seems fair the withdrawal costs should be paid by the winner though, after all he doesn't have Paypal which was a requirement for the contest.

are Hitmen that cheap in Russia ?

No, but mail-order brides are...